| Blog series by ChicoWoodnut | updated 28 days ago | 18 parts | 4328 reads | 190 comments total |
Part 1: Time to start the execution phase
Well I think I am finally done with the design of this peice. I made a change last night which is actually a regression to an earlier model. I like this change. I have reversed the rails and stiles on the door construction making the stiles be the horizontal member. I read an entry on this site the other day regarding this technique. Sorry I can’t remember who to credit it to. Anyway, Here are two jpeg exports to compare. I think the new arrangement gives the table a low and wide...
Part 2: Storm pause
I got over to the lumber store to look at some mahogany last Thursday. Friday we had the storm of the century here in Northern California. Knocked down my lemon tree and a good chunk of fence in the back yard so I got diverted from this project cleaning up stuff. I did get some time to make a rendering of how to use the boards I am going to get tomorrow. I took the components of my sketchup model and layed them out on some 10” x 8’ boards. Doing this, I got to think out the w...
Part 3: Cutting up boards
I bought 35 bd ft of Hondo Mahogany. It’s been stickered for about a week. I cut it all up and now it’s ready for the next phase. Knife hinges are on order and some ebony from e-bay. I’ll let it all sit till the weekend and keep my fingers crossed that none of the sticks will warp. I have been planning this way too long. Here are all the boards. They are about 11” wide. There is an 8/4 piece in the forground. Here are all the sticks and a rare sh...
Part 4: Milling Legs
The weekend here in Northern California has been extraordinary. Spring is in the air. A pesky mocking bird has been trying to imitate my router. Although I had indicated that I would start making templates for the cloudlift panels, I decided to start milling the legs this weekend. There were two reasons. 1. It was the right place to start. 2. I had to buy a 1/4” slot cutting bit for the panel grooves. The local supplier (Western Tool) had the bit and arbor but not the corr...
Part 5: Progress
I figured i would post a quick progress note. I have cut all the tenons for the case and fitted them. Here is a shot of the dry fit. I still need to lay in the dovetailed stretchers on the top. That will be tomorrow. I won’t bore anyone with making tenons. It’s coming along pretty well. I’ll be shaping cloud lifts by Saturday.
Part 6: Templates and Cloudlifts
Last night I made the master template. I have been thinking for a long time about how to do this. I thought I would need to chuck up the drum sander on my RAS but it turned out to be much easier than that. I started out with two pieces of hardboard the same width and length as the front lower stretcher. I could have chosen any rail. That was a random decision. I didn’t have the camera last night so here is a little after the fact photography. I marked the first hardboard piece ...
Part 7: Ebony - how do I tool it?
I bought five pieces of gabon ebony from e-bay. It arrived today. I have never worked with ebony before and I have a couple of questions. I intend to cut the pieces with the band saw. I this the best way to size it? I have Darrels book. I am making some ebony splines for a table. Will the ebony machine well with a router? I am worried that it might splinter or shatter. The ebony is coated with what appears to be wax. Is this common? Any tips are welcome. I want to start miling it ...
Part 8: Cloudlift panels
I did a little work cutting panels tonite so I thought I would update. I cut the panels to match the cloudlift rails. I probably could have saved myself a lot of trouble by routing the slot deep but I thought it would be less likely to warp if I followed the detail with a 1/4” slot cutting bit and a bearing. That required shaped panels. I used the same templates to draw lines on the panels and then used a router table and fence set out at 3/8” to cut the panels. I will add ...
Part 9: Laying in the front top stretcher
This is part nine in this series. If you havn’t already seen them, don’t forget to browse the other eight by clicking on the “Part” links above. I was distracted in March with three birthdays (including my 50th) and a lot of other things that spring brings around. My family visited from the four corners of the earth and in keeping with the Chico tradition we had a big party. So there is a big blank space in this series but not to worry, there was nothing to miss!...
Part 10: Laying in the bottom
Here is number ten of my Greene and Greene inspired nightstand. I put the bottoms in today. It took me a while as I was very nervous about screwing something up at this late stage in the game. Also, since the bottom holds everything in place, I wanted to make sure it was the right place :) So I started by running a 3/4×1/4 dado around the inside of all the bottom rails. I referenced the cuts from the tops because I want the center stiles to have no ugly spaces where they meet th...
Part 11: Dust Panel construction - Thinking out loud
I am ready to start constructing the dust panel for this project. Having never made a dust panel I am trying to think through the joinery. Who knows, maybe I’ll answer my own question while writing this post. Here is the exploded drawing of the dust panel from my SU model. You can click on the image to see the whole thing but this end is just like the other :) Here is a cutaway jpeg of the dust panel in the case. What I am unsure of is how to join the drawer runners ...
Part 12: Dust panel solution
I thought about this problem and came up with the following solution. This is one side of the dust panel. I will cut a shallow tenon on the end of the runner and an accompanying mortise in the leg to accept it. This will capture the runner when I assemble the side panel. The runner will have a long dado in which the dust panel will ride (with a long tenon). I started cutting it up tonight. The Sketchup model has been modified and I think I have all the joinery worked out. Update ...
Part 13: Reversing course - a Design decision
While making doors and sanding, I have been thinking about what to do with the bottoms of the legs for this project. I didn’t really think about it too much while I was doing the SU model. I thought I would leave that part of the detail to the building phase. Well, yesterday I thought I would try cutting an indent detail like on the Blacker Chair Legs. Here is an example of them in this beautiful execution by Darrell Peart. So I spent the better part of an hour making a jig yesterd...
Part 14: More on the fly design work. I'm happy - more pics too
After more thinking and feedback from the group I decided to have another go at the indent detail. I modified the jig so the indent appears only 1 1/4” above the bottom of the leg. I also adjusted the length of the indent by making the ramp steeper. The result looks like this in the scrap MDF. I also made the curve on the bottom on this scrap so I could transfer it to the leg for further shaping. Here is the first leg all shaped. I have a little more sanding to do but this...
Part 15: Blacker indent summary - Lots of sanding on this detail
I decided to summarize the Blacker Indent detail. I don’t own a belt sander so I did this all by hand. I got a lot faster after the first couple. First I cut the indent detail using a ramped jig. (sorry, I don’t have a picture). This is outlined in Darrell Peart’s book. I marked a line 1/8” in from the edge all the way around the bottom and another line 3/4” from the bottom on all the sides. I sanded the edge up to the lines with 150 and a ...
Part 16: Door glueup and Brusso knife hinges
I glued up the doors and set in knife hinges this week. Here are a few photos of the process. First I glued up the doors. I sometimes have problems getting my panels and doors to glue up square so I came up with this simple jig to help with the process. It is nothing more than a couple of jointed sticks clamped square to the bench to keep the assembly square. Once I have the jig all square and secure I put two strips underneath to keep the sqeeze out from making a mess of the...
Part 17: Glue up + fitting and hanging doors
In my last entry I mortised Brusso knife hinges into the case. The next step is glueing up the case and then fitting/hanging the doors. Here are a few photos of that process. First I cleaned off the bench and layed the back and two sides out in sequence. The sides were already glued up in my last entry. The back has a center stile so it needed to be glued in place. That is why the back is dissasembled. Glue on the back stile tenons, rail tenons and left side mortise. Push ...
Part 18: Making Drawers
I have been building the drawers. Here is a jpg of the model. I started with some layout. Then I cut the fingers with a jig I made. I was left with this. I ran a rabbett down the drawer side. The drawer side fingers were left proud. I pillowed them with sandpaper. More Pillowing I was left with this.A glueup. I didn’t get a picture but I ran a dado on the sides for the backs to sit in and another all around for the drawer bottom. Here it is wit...
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